Text 28855, 75 rader
Skriven 2007-05-21 00:01:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Carter
==============
From a pathetic president...

============================================

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070519/D8P7O79O0.html

May 19, 7:08 PM (ET)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Former President Carter says President Bush's
administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim
at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.

The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented for the
39th president, also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the
administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative funding.

"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this
administration has been the worst in history," Carter told the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's Saturday editions.
"The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous
administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and
Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me."

Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo confirmed his comments to The Associated
Press on Saturday and declined to elaborate. He spoke while promoting his new
audiobook series, "Sunday Mornings in Plains," a collection of weekly Bible
lessons from his hometown of Plains, Ga.

"Apparently, Sunday mornings in Plains for former President Carter includes
hurling reckless accusations at your fellow man," said Amber Wilkerson,
Republican National Committee spokeswoman. She said it was hard to take Carter
seriously because he also "challenged Ronald Reagan's strategy for the Cold
War."

Carter came down hard on the Iraq war.

"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with
another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly
threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time
in the future our security might be endangered," he said. "But that's been a
radical departure from all previous administration policies."

Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having "zero
peace talks" in Israel. Carter also said the administration "abandoned or
directly refuted" every negotiated nuclear arms agreement, as well as
environmental efforts by other presidents.

Carter also offered a harsh assessment for the White House's Office of
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which helped religious charities receive
$2.15 billion in federal grants in fiscal year 2005 alone.

"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious
institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own
particular group of believers in a particular religion," Carter said. "As a
traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and
honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I
might say, except this one."

Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University presidential historian and Carter
biographer, described Carter's comments as unprecedented.

"This is the most forceful denunciation President Carter has ever made about an
American president," Brinkley said. "When you call somebody the worst
president, that's volatile. Those are fighting words."

Carter also lashed out Saturday at British prime minister Tony Blair. Asked how
he would judge Blair's support of Bush, the former president said: "Abominable.
Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient."

"And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the
ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for
the world," Carter told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

--- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10
 * Origin:  (1:226/600)